Another gem found! Now what?

[comda]

Today i was walking through downtown and managed to score another Mac. This is another Imac G3, an indigo model. its a 350Mhz PPC g3 with i believe some upgraded memory to 192mb a CD-Rom and no hard drive. As i had to pull it out to get it. I did manage to get a lot of Free PC 100 and PC133 Ram sticks and among all the 256mb sticks i got 2x 512!!! So now i can load up my tangerine model from the "Imac Overhual Finally post" but i have a few questions.

My Tangerine is running OSX 10.2.8 without the upgraded firmware as i never done a firmware update i was scared to do it. With this imac i love it but dont care as much so can someone tell me where to get the firmware and how to install it so i can run tiger on this beast? Or how to check if It already maybe has the firmware. Cause the original drive in this was a 7gb according to the bottom and I removed a 40gb. So maybe upgrades and updates are already done?

What can i really do with this imac G3 anyways? like the other one running Jaguar i mainly have displayed in my room but on Jaguar it doesnt do much.I want to Run tiger on this one and maybe have a use for it. What do you think?

 

[MysticCow]

To run the iMac firmware update, you need Mac OS 9 on the system and nothing else will do.

Download the firmware update, boot into OS 9 and then run it. It should be able to work itself out, but you might need to press the Programmer's Button during startup (the recessed button that doesn't reboot the whole thing). The installer will tell you if you need to do it or not.

The update is easy, but I'll tell you now that older G3 models are just lovely running OS 9 and there's a ton of old apps that will run under it, including retro games that are pure fun to play.

 

[DeltaMac]

.... With this imac i love it but dont care as much so can someone tell me where to get the firmware and how to install it so i can run tiger on this beast? Or how to check if It already maybe has the firmware. Cause the original drive in this was a 7gb according to the bottom and I removed a 40gb. So maybe upgrades and updates are already done?
...

MysticCow tells you how to update the firmware (and you need to boot to OS 9 on the internal HD to do that). And you also need the firmware updater. Here's a page that has several links that appear to still have that updater: http://www.filewatcher.com/m/iMac_FWUpdate_4.1.9.smi.bin.1296640-0.html

If you just want to check the firmware version, boot to Open Firmware
(Option - Command - O - F )
The top line will show your firmware version - your iMac may already have version 4.1.9

 

[Hrududu]

350MHz is a little tough to use for much under OS X even with 1GB of RAM. You can do a little web browsing on it, but I'd use it for an iTunes jukebox in a room or garage where you'd like a little music and an internet connection. They have wonderful Harman/Kardon speakers built in, and you could snag an iSub off eBay to compliment it.

 

[comda]

I was actually debating on giving this one 512mb Ram and running Panther on this one. And giving the 1Gb To my 400Mhz tangerine model and getting that one to run Tiger. But i want to do the firmware update on this one first as I've noticed the Tangerine models are not as popular (at least i haven't seen as many of them as the indigo's). So if i mess up a firmware update I'd rather the indigo than the tangerine. And The only way I know it has a 350Mhz is due to the bottom. But I've noticed some works been done on the machine as ive mentioned the original 7gb (according to the bottom) was replaced with a 40Gb that i have to surrender anyways due to data on it as well as the ram has been upgraded too. So for all i know the CD rom might be a DVD rom and maybe it has a different board in it. Who knows. Guess i wont till I have os 9 running on it. Honestly still happy with it and cant wait to get it up and going. probably wont be for a week or so as exams are closing in on me already.

 

[comda]

Looks like someone beat me to the firmware update....update 4.1.9..

 

[redhatcode29]

Today i was walking through downtown and managed to score another Mac. This is another Imac G3

Dude, you are so lucky...the part of the world where I live, one can't even find an ad wishing to dispose one of these g3's.

 

[J232022]

Yeah those imac g3s are awesome , but sadly there really is not much you can do with them in 2014 . Web browsing is going to be super slow even for the basic things . They are great machines but not really useful for doing modern tasks .

 

[gavinstubbs09]

One thing I would love to do if I had a big house with a empty room is to buy a round table and find each color iMac G3. Put them in a circle for a display piece which is completely useless but would be cool nonetheless.

 

[Starfighter]

I second Hrududu's suggestion to use it as a jukebox. They really have awesome speakers (at least much, much better than one would expect) and if it's one thing they (the iMac G3's) do well even today - it's rocking iTunes.

I used mine basically as a CD player.

 

[comda]

Well sadly i still havnt gotten this machine going. I found a 40Gb hard drive from my brothers old AMD tower im willing to use. Just have to transfer his data over. I mainly focused my weekend on getting my tangerine model going and replacing the HDD in my Emac.

Anyways. As to what this machine will be purposed to. I put an 80Gb in the tangerine and will be transferring my Itunes library onto it. This one i might end up keeping as a spare for parts or might sell for some few bucks as its not worth much or maybe even give it to my brother.

I would have to agree with the lot of you who said the speakers are great in this thing. I had my old Elvis Presley CD and popped it in and ended up jaming to "jail house rock" and others. haha

I will soon post my Tangerine model for everyone to see

Thanks everyone who helped.